By far the best thing that happened in my “professional” life this year was that I won a contract to conduct a social media marketing workshop for the directors of the American Corners in Serbia. American Corners are resource centers providing information about American culture and the English language, and are located in host institutions such as community libraries. They are an important part of our public diplomacy efforts within a country, but have much more autonomy than a mission’s public diplomacy section or an Information Resource Center located at an embassy.

It was my job to teach the people running the American Corners how to harness the power of social media to make their lives easier, and how to do it without it becoming their primary job. Social media can easily become a full-time job, which is why companies have been creating positions for people to take over those responsibilities to let everyone else do the jobs for which they were originally hired.

Although I had conducted shorter seminars in the past, this was the first time I had put together and presented a multi-day workshop by myself. I wasn’t sure what, exactly, to expect, but upon the workshop’s conclusion, I was exhilarated. Social media is something I know and love, and I truly loved sharing my knowledge with others.